Concert Reports

NAMM Show 2012

01/24/2012, Anaheim, California

Day One of the 2012 NAMM Show Spotlights Reuniting of Peers, Innovation in Business, Educational Sessions

Opening Day Also Features Musical Performances and Celebrity Sightings ANAHEIM, Calif., January 19, 2012—Themed “Make It Count,” the 2012 NAMM show kicked off on day one with its traditional Breakfast of Champions session, welcoming droves of attendees from all over the world to gain valuable insight about the music products industry and the innovation that is being used by successful businesses.

The session started with musical performances from orchestral trio Sharon Hurvitz (piano), Avi Nagin (violin) and Natalie Helm (cello), and the cultural rhythms of Indian musician Prakash Sontakke on the slide guitar and Afghanistani musician Salar Nader on the Tabla.

The NAMM Show

Schecter Guitars

Washburn Guitars

Sabian Cymbals

Paul Reed Smith Guitars

Pearl Drums Tommy Lee Kit

NAMM Show Living Legends Concert

Glitter Rose www.GlitterRose.com

Dean Guitars

BC Rich Guitars

Jackson Guitars

Coffin Case

Glitter Rose www.GlitterRose.com

Fernandes Guitars

Daisy Rock Guitars

Schecter Guitars

Tommy Lee

2011 Playmate of The Year Claire Sinclair

Marshall Amplification

Ludwig Drums

Ibanez Guitars

Hohner Hermonicas John lennon Model

Ernie Ball

Charvel Guitars

The NAMM Show

Randall Guitars

Carvin Guitars

Remo Drums

Casio

Zildjian Cymbals

Chauvet

ADJ

Acepro

Cort Guitars Gene Simmons Model

Orange Amps

Gretsch Guitars

Rockett Drums

Daisy Rock Guitars

Samick

Rock n Roller

Pearl Drums Tommy Lee Kit

Tama Drums

Voco Pro

Vic Firth Drumsticks

Washburn Guitars

Premier Drums Niko McBrain Model

Peavy Guitars

Martin Guitars

Seymour Duncan Pickups

Squier Guitars

All Photos: Ray Soto/Central Coast Rocks

NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond conducted one-on-one interviews with industry professionals, focusing on the innovative technologies, techniques and business practices that have given these professionals a competitive edge in today’s economy. Guests included product manufacturer Marcus Ryle of LINE 6, Rick Camino and Will Urban of the online retailer Hello Music, and George Hines of retail store George's Music.

Lamond then presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Ray Kurzweil, an American author, scientist, inventor and futurist in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments.

Next, Lamond presented NAMM’s Music for Life Award to Stevie Wonder, honoring him for his brilliant musical contributions and talent that is cherished by people all over the world.

“I will cherish this award,” said Wonder. “It means a lot to me. Music is about moving the world forward. It is our time now to do this. We must treat this like ‘yesterday will be too late.’ Thank you for this honor.”

Afterward, the doors to the show floor opened to crowds of attendees lined up waiting to see the products that the exhibitors have in store for them this year. The overall pre-registration numbers for this year have shown a solid increase over previous years, and NAMM has predicted a busy show floor for all days of the show.

The Fernand L. Petiot All-Industry Marching conducted its traditional “Grand March to the Exposition” and was led by NAMM Members and special guests Gov. Mike Huckabee and Michael Butera, executive director at the National Association for Music Education.

Attendees were also offered a musical performance in the lobby by the “Get a Life Marching Band,” a high-energy all-adult group based in Portland, Ore. comprised of people who were once in high school or college marching bands.

The day wrapped up honoring industry colleagues who died in 2011 with a video tribute called NAMM In Memoriam.

As with all NAMM Shows, the Anaheim Hilton holds court for live performances each night, and Wednesday night the standout was Glitter Rose. Her Bio describes her accurately: She’s bad, she’s beautiful, she rocks! Outlaw Southern Rocker - Glitter Rose from Fort Worth, TX. This left handed outlaw owns the stage with her amazing charisma and her unique rockin’ country sound. Check out Glitter Rose at: www.GlitterRose.com

Over at The Grove of Anaheim Zakk Wylde was roasted at the first Guitar World Rock and Roll Roast

The event was hosted by Sharon Osbourne, who explained that she has known the guitarist (who has worked with Ozzy Osborne for years) since his youth: "I've known him since he was 18. He calls me 'mom,' and I feel like his mom. So I can be disrespectful, horrible, mean to him for two hours and get away with it."

Other rockers who toasted Wylde and shared memories of the guitarist included Corey Taylor, Duff McKagan, Anthrax's Scott Ian, Chris Jericho and others.

Ozzy was unable to attend, but Sharon Osborne noted: "Ozzy is very proud of Zakk - very, very proud. He's proud of the man he's become - he's sober and fabulous." Wylde quipped of the event: "I'm a good Catholic boy, I'm a nice person, I have no idea what they can be making fun of."

The 2012 NAMM Show ran through Sunday Jan. 22 and featured educational breakfast sessions each day before the show floor opens, ongoing NAMM University sessions, numerous product demos by celebrity musicians and after-hour events at local Anaheim venues. â€¨â€¨â€¨

Day Two of the 2012 NAMM Show Features More Educational Sessions, Busy Show Floor, SupportMusic Coalition Webcast

ANAHEIM, Calif., January 20, 2012—The second day of the 2012 NAMM Show kicked off with another lively Breakfast Session held at the Hilton Anaheim.

The event started with the Milestone Awards presented by NAMM Historian Dan Del Fiorentino and NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond for companies in business 75, 100 and 125 years. Next, they recognized Keith Bardak, president of Hal Leonard, for his contributions to NAMM’s Oral History Program, which features interviews with industry laureates.

Attendees also enjoyed music from the Vitamin String Quartet.

Next, David Meerman Scott, marketing strategist and bestselling author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” and “Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead” spoke about the benefits of incorporating a real-time, viral and global approach to PR and marketing in a presentation called “Real-Time Marketing and PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now.”

Scott’s approach is that if businesses are not engaged in real-time, then they are making themselves irrelevant in the marketplace.

While big business was being conducted on a crowded show floor, educational sessions for retailers continued at NAMM University including “You’re on Facebook…Now What?,” “Ideas to Train Your Sales Staff in 10 Minutes a Day,” The New Face of Music Lessons—Adults,” and “Turn Your Rental Customers Into Your Best Customers.”

Meanwhile, NAMM’s SupportMusic Coalition hosted a live teleconference and webcast from the Anaheim Hilton featuring celebrity panelists sharing their personal experiences about the benefits of school music education.

The Coalition is a public service led by U.S.-based NAMM and NAfME, the National Association for Music Education, which seeks to strengthen community commitment and support for quality music education in schools.

Panelists included Deanna Brown Thomas, president of the Brown Family Children Foundation and daughter of James Brown; Bernie Williams, author, musician, former major league baseball outfielder; Bootsy Collins, American funk bassist, singer and songwriter; and Phil Collen, co-lead guitarist and backing vocalist for English rock band Def Leppard.

“Music is like the great cosmic communicator,” said Collen. “You can communicate with any and everybody rather than speaking their language. It’s so important for kids to express themselves and love themselves and playing music does that for kids.”

The event concluded with Graham Welch, president of the International Society for Music Education and Stanley Jordan, guitarist, presenting the first Global Sonar Award to NAMM for its ongoing support of music education programs. NAMM was lauded for giving nearly $80 million to music programs over the past 10 years.

Guitarist, composer and producer Steve Vai was the recipient of the prestigious Les Paul Award at the 27th annual Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards. The gala co-presented by the TEC Foundation For Excellence In Audio and NAMM, was held at the Hilton in Anaheim, California as a special event of the 2012 NAMM show, featuring Phil Collen, Lisa Loeb, Weird Al Yankovic, Bernie Williams, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Phil Ramone, Billy Sheehan, Will Lee and Bootsy Collins.

The TEC Awards recognizes outstanding achievement in professional audio production and product design.

Sponsored by the Les Paul Foundation, the Les Paul Award is given annually to a musician or recording professional whose work has epitomized the marriage of music and technology. The award was co-presented by Russ Paul and celebrated rock bassist Billy Sheehan.

The complete list of the 27th annual TEC Awards winners is available at this location.

The After Parties around Anaheim were in full force and the Dean Guitar’s NAMM Jam was one of the highlights. Monster, a global leader in high performance audio cables joined forces with Dean Guitars for the premiere concert at NAMM. Featuring performances by Testament, Jackyl, Vinnie Moore and Wayne Static, the concert was streamed to over 100,000 musicians and fans. Monster and Dean Guitars teamed up at NAMM because of their shared passion for live music and their unified message – “Because the Music Matters.” In addition to being able to view the 2012 NAMM Jam live, viewers all over the world also had an “All-Access Ticket” to NAMM with a multi-camera, real-time HD webcast from Dean Guitars, allowing interaction via Facebook and Twitter. www.DeanGuitars.com

Day Three of the 2012 NAMM Show Features Take-Home Business Tips, Continuing Education In the H.O.T. Zone

Day Also Features Numerous Celebrity Sightings

ANAHEIM, Calif., January 21, 2012—The third day of the 2012 NAMM Show continued to offer attendees more industry insight and business tips to take home with them, starting with a Breakfast Session called “The Top Web Marketing Trends for 2012” presented by John Arnold, marketing author and columnist at Entrepreneur.com.

The session demonstrated the best ways for companies to spend their time and money, and recognize the new technologies that are less likely to pay off. It also outlined how to start using tools such as social media, search marketing, mobile devices and marketing locally on the Internet.

As attendees filed through the convention center doors, they were greeted by the music of Polka Floyd, a tribute band with the unusual twist of an added accordion and a polka beat.

Meanwhile, the Hands On Training (H.O.T.) Zone offered numerous educational sessions focused on the pro audio, entertainment technologies and music business operations segments. Today’s sessions drew hundreds of attendees and included a Logic Pro Clinic, “Cloud Technologies for Pro Audio,” “Bass Players Summit-BX3 Revisited,” “The Virtual Recording Studio Program,” and “Lawyers, Deals and Money: Current Trends in Music Business and Law.”

The NAMM Foundation kicked off its “Music Education Days,” a program that provides an opportunity for music educators to interact with each other and music industry professionals to address mutual concerns about access to music education for all children. Today’s program included a welcome breakfast, a keynote session called “One Is Too Small a Number to Achieve Something Great,” presented by Marcia Neel of Music Education Consultants, Inc., and a session called “A Place In the Choir” presented by John Jacobson, a.k.a. Mr. “Double Dream Hands.”

The NAMM University sessions continued at the IDEA Center on the show floor, and included presentations on “How to Ignite Your Business In Five Minutes or Less!,” “Call Your Store and Change These Four Things Now,” “Monetize Your Facebook Page,” and “Financial Questions Every Music Retailer’s Afraid to Ask.” Tonight on the main Lobby Stage, NAMM proudly presented the second year of its “Celebrity Jam” featuring the Band from TV Stars including Scott Grimes, James Denton, Greg Grunberg, Adrian Pasdar, Bob Guiney, Jesse Spencer, Anthony Ruivivar and others who showed how much they love to play music when the cameras stop rolling.

Also tonight over at nearby Downtown Disney District, were the finals of NAMM’s SchoolJam USA bringing together the best teenage bands in the country to battle for bragging rights and prizes for their band and their school music programs. The event was co-hosted by teen pop sensation Greyson Chance and singer/songwriter Shaun Barrowes. The winning band will be announced tonight. The show continues through tomorrow and will feature the traditional “Best In Show—This Year’s Hottest Products,” Breakfast Session with Frank Alkyer, publisher of Music Inc. and a panel of music products professionals sharing their best picks from the show floor this year.

Over at The Grove of Anaheim, Schecter Guitars held their 10th Anniversary NAMM Party which proved once again to be the weekend’s most sought after invite.

This year Seether and Filter rocked the star studded crowd as the Jagemeister and Arrogant Bastard Ale were flowing all night long. Schecter Guitar Research has grown from a small custom shop to one of the biggest names in the music industry. The company is convinced that you can’t design and build a great guitar unless you live and breath music. They do just that. The staff at Schecter is like family and includes a melting pot of styles. Check out Schecter’s complete 2012 line at: www.SchecterGuitars.com

110th NAMM Show Reaches New Record Number of Registrants; Industry Primed for Growth in 2012

Innovation, Increased Optimism and Hope for the Future Surface as Key Show Themes As Industry Gathers for Biggest and Busiest NAMM Show Ever

Anaheim, Calif, January 22, 2012—The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) today announced the final registration and exhibitor numbers for the 2012 NAMM Show, the largest and longest-running musical instruments and products trade show in the United States.

At show close, NAMM reported 95,709 registered attendees, a six percent increase from last year and representing a new record for the 110-year-old show. International registration also experienced a 15 percent increase from last year to 11,981. The association previously reported strong exhibitor numbers, with 1,441 exhibitors at this year’s show, including 236 new exhibitors.

"Once again the NAMM Show served as the crossroads for musical instrument and live sound products manufacturers, retailers and their guests from all over the world,” said NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond. "We are extremely grateful to all of the NAMM Members, music educators, artists, partners and media who made this 110th NAMM Show a resounding success for the industry and a great start to 2012."

The annual trade show is the place where music products retailers meet face-to-face with manufacturers to make their biggest purchases and gain product knowledge for their stores in the year ahead. Throughout the four days of business deals, educational sessions and live music performances, the mood of the show was energetic and positive.

"We'd like to deeply thank NAMM for their incredible support during our first show as exhibitors." said John R. Gibson, President and CEO, Wi Digital Systems. "Thanks to NAMM, we hit every stretch target, including major media exposure and signing up significant new accounts."

"We were very pleased to see so much enthusiasm from our dealers at NAMM," said Courtland Gray, Chief Operating Officer, Peavey Electronics Corporation. "Our new self-tuning Peavey AT-200 guitar, PVX powered speakers, Max Series bass amplifiers and more all made a very positive impression. We're off to a great start for 2012."

“We are extremely pleased with our experience during the 2012 NAMM Show,” said Jason Padgitt, senior vice president, marketing and communications for Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. “The enthusiasm we have received on all of our new products from our family of brands has been terrific.”

“The show was noticeably better in attendance this year," said Rick Young, Yamaha Corporation of America. "We were consistently packed Thursday through Saturday and Sunday was better than in many of the last years. We had a good array of new products to show our dealers and everyone was upbeat and hopeful. Now that we have the manufacturers and retailers excited, we have one more important group to get excited and that is consumers. Obtaining the mindshare and walletshare of consumers will be the key to success in 2012.”

"We had a wonderful show, said Lizabeth Gray, Santa Cruz Guitar Co. "Lots of sales for the next two years and we're very pleased. I would say that this has been one of most successful NAMM Shows ever!"

“We had a great show,” said John Sorenson, director of sales planning, Avedis Zildjian Company. “Our international representation was very strong. We had some great programs that we released this year and the uptick was very, very good. So we’re looking forward to a great 2012 for sure.”

Themed "Make It Count,” this year’s NAMM Show focused on innovation in the form of apps and technology products designed to make playing music more accessible and easier than ever for consumers.

"I think we did great,” said Trisha Lurie, Jammit. "Everyone liked what we are doing. Great foot traffic in the App and Gaming Pavilion. Our app was very well received at this year’s NAMM Show."

"We had a really great show, said Bradley Walker of Agile Partners, another App Pavilion exhibitor. "Our app generated a ton of interest from guys in Poland, Spain and the UK this year. I think we really got more hands-on this year. The idea of running an amplifier on an iPhone or iPad is better understood and people now want to know how our app compares with the rest of the market."

“We had a press event Wednesday night and we had a dealer party as well and those were very well received, we had a good turnout for that, so we’re having a very good show," said Gloria Harris, Casio. "A lot of booth traffic. We had scheduled a lot of appointments and people came out and they saw the product and they loved it. We’re excited for the new year.”

"We had a great, great show," said Chris DeMaria, Fishman Electronics. We had a couple new products to unveil and we had a lot of excitement, a lot of traffic, a lot of people came by to see what we’re up to and it was pretty exciting. It was a good year for us in 2011 and great to be back in 2012 and meet with our dealers and meet with some of our business partners and we had a great show. We’re seeing some new dealers and it’s a great opportunity for the existing dealers that we normally see at NAMM because we don’t always get out there to meet with them face-to-face and this show is great because it really sets the tone and allows a lot of people to get in the mindset for the New Year.”

“We had an amazingly great show—it was very successful,” said Marco Soccoli, director of artist relations, D’Addario. “We’d like to thank NAMM. Until next year!” For more information, photos, video and news updates from the 2011 NAMM Show, interested parties can visit www.namm.org/thenammshow/2012

About NAMM

The National Association of Music Merchants, commonly called NAMM in reference to the organization's popular NAMM trade shows, is the not-for-profit association that unifies, leads and strengthens the $17 billion global musical instruments and products industry. NAMM's activities and programs are designed to promote music making to people of all ages. NAMM is comprised of more than 9,000 Member companies. For more information about NAMM, interested parties can visit www.namm.org or call 800-767-NAMM (6266).